Ryang Yong-gi (; born 7 January 1982) is a former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a midfielder. Born in Japan, he represented

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

internationally. Ryang served as the captain of his club where he played as a creative midfielder. Ryang has made one appearance for the

Korea DPR national football team The North Korea national football team ( Munhwaeo ; North Korean romanisation: Josŏn minjujuŭi inmin konghwaguk kukka chonghap thim; recognized as Korea DPR by FIFA) represents North Korea in men's international football and it is controlle ...

in the

2010 FIFA World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

qualifying rounds and was named as one of the North Korean squad for the

2010 AFC Challenge Cup The 2010 AFC Challenge Cup was the third edition of the tournament which was held from 16–27 February 2010 in Sri Lanka. India, the defending champions, fielded their India national under-23 football team, under-23 team for this tournament ...

. Ryang won the Golden Boot and Most Valuable Player awards at the competition that guided Korea DPR to win the title and qualify for

2011 AFC Asian Cup The 2011 AFC Asian Cup was the 15th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were held in Qatar from 7 to 29 January 2011. It was the secon ...

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami

During the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami On 11 March 2011, at 14:46:24 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46:24 UTC), a 9.0–9.1 Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approx ...

, Ryang was out driving when it hit. "I thought my tires had gone flat or I had driven over the curb, but the shaking continued and I saw the windows of shops shaking too," he recalled. "I knew it was a bad one and rushed home to see my wife." Ryang and his heavily pregnant wife spent the night sleeping in their car, fearful of further damage to buildings in an urban landscape that suffered severe wreckage. In the aftermath of the disaster, Ryang and his teammates made frequent visits to affected areas to lend support.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

:''Scores and results list North Korea's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Ryang goal''.

Honours

Vegalta Sendai * J. League Division 2: 2009 North Korea *

AFC Challenge Cup The AFC Challenge Cup was an international football competition for Asian Football Confederation (AFC) member countries that were categorised as "emerging countries" in the "Vision Asia" programme. It was created by former AFC president Mohammed ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Individual *Individual Fair-Play Award: 2011 *Monthly Best Goal: 2015

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ryang, Yong-gi 1982 births Living people Hannan University alumni Association football people from Osaka Prefecture North Korean men's footballers North Korea men's international footballers Japanese men's footballers Japanese people of North Korean descent J1 League players J2 League players Vegalta Sendai players Sagan Tosu players 2011 AFC Asian Cup players 2015 AFC Asian Cup players Expatriate men's footballers in Japan Men's association football midfielders Zainichi Korean men's footballers People from Tadaoka, Osaka 21st-century South Korean sportsmen